Ares Capital - ARCC Stock Forecast, Price & News

Ares Capital Corporation is a business development company specializing in acquisition, recapitalization, mezzanine debt, restructurings, rescue financing, and leveraged buyout transactions of middle market companies. It also makes growth capital and general refinancing. It prefers to make investments in companies engaged in the basic and growth manufacturing, business services, consumer products, health care products and services, and information technology service sectors. The fund will also consider investments in industries such as restaurants, retail, oil and gas, and technology sectors. It focuses on investments in Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Southwest regions from its New York office, the Midwest region, from the Chicago office, and the Western region from the Los Angeles office. The fund typically invests between $20 million and $200 million and a maximum of $400 million in companies with an EBITDA between $10 million and $250 million. It makes debt investments between $10 million and $100 million The fund invests through revolvers, first lien loans, warrants, unitranche structures, second lien loans, mezzanine debt, private high yield, junior capital, subordinated debt, and non-control preferred and common equity. The fund also selectively considers third-party-led senior and subordinated debt financings and opportunistically considers the purchase of stressed and discounted debt positions. The fund prefers to be an agent and/or lead the transactions in which it invests. The fund also seeks board representation in its portfolio companies.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC traded up $0.19 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $20.56. The company had a trading volume of 1,610,377 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,735,965. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $10.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.30 and a beta of 0.99. Ares Capital has a 12-month low of $17.03 and a 12-month high of $23.00. The company has a fifty day moving average of $18.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.19.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC - Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 26th. The investment management company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.02. Ares Capital had a net margin of 54.92% and a return on equity of 10.15%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ares Capital will post 1.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on ARCC shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Ares Capital from $22.50 to $23.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 25th. JMP Securities dropped their price objective on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a "market outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 28th. TheStreet cut Ares Capital from a "b-" rating to a "c+" rating in a report on Monday, May 23rd. Hovde Group dropped their price target on Ares Capital to $19.00 in a research report on Friday, May 20th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their target price on Ares Capital to $21.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $21.88.

Insider Activity

In other Ares Capital news, insider Michael Lewis Smith bought 54,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $18.64 per share, for a total transaction of $1,006,560.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 89,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,658,960. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Michael Lewis Smith acquired 54,000 shares of Ares Capital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 19th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $18.64 per share, with a total value of $1,006,560.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 89,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,658,960. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Michael J. Arougheti acquired 300,000 shares of Ares Capital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 14th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $17.75 per share, for a total transaction of $5,325,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,782,709 shares in the company, valued at $31,643,084.75. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have acquired 381,775 shares of company stock worth $6,875,621. 0.59% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.